The French Revolution (1789–1799)

History SparkNotes

The Directory: 1795–1799

Quiz

Always use specific historical examples to support
your arguments.

Study Questions

1.

Although many
accounts of the French Revolution focus on the actions of the Girondins
and Jacobins, nearly every major step of the Revolution was incited
by the sans-culottes. Support or refute this statement.

A recurring theme throughout the
French Revolution was the idea that there is power in numbers, and
the sans-culottes represented without doubt the best example of
the power of the masses. Although the National Assembly was the
governing body during the early stages of the Revolution, it had
little control over the symbolic events that incited revolutionary
fervor, such as the storming of the Bastille, the Great Fear, and
the women’s march on Versailles. In fact, it was only in response
to these spontaneous, unplanned events that concrete policy changes
such as the August Decrees were passed.

Later in the Revolution, the sans-culottes
continued to prove influential, as they were involved in the storming
of Tuileries, which led to King Louis XVI’s deposition, and stormed
the National Convention, which gave Robespierre and the Jacobins the
opportunity to take control. Although the Reign of Terror and subsequent
Thermidorian Reaction suppressed sansculotte activity later in the
Revolution, the decline was also due in part to diminished revolutionary
spirit and apathy on the part of the government of the Directory.
Nevertheless, in the crucial early and middle stages of the Revolution,
the sans-culottes proved to be remarkably effective at forcing change—change
that otherwise might not have occurred.

2.

Although
the financial crisis of the ancien régime was the
immediate spark that set off the French Revolution, which broader
factors within France contributed to the Revolution?

In adhering to an outdated and essentially
baseless feudal system, the aristocracy and monarchy of France provided
the true impetus for the French Revolution. In the years leading
up to the Revolution, France was riddled with unsustainable economic
and cultural disparities: it showed a decadent facade to the world
while actually facing catastrophic debt, and boasted some of the
greatest minds of the Enlightenment, though its populace was overwhelmingly
illiterate and poor.

Perhaps most destabilizing factor was the growing class
disparity between the emerging wealthy bourgeoisie and the old nobility. Despite
the fact that the nobility were titled and the bourgeoisie were
not, many of the bourgeoisie were far wealthier than the “blue-blooded”
but financially strapped aristocrats. As the nobility continued
to try to claim special privileges over their hardworking bourgeoisie
counterparts, it was inevitable that the bourgeoisie would grow
angry and resentful.

At the same time, discontent grew among the lower classes
as landlords in the countryside continued to bind peasants to outdated,
oppressive feudal contracts that were often difficult to fulfill. Simply
put, with Enlightenment ideas spreading through France in the late 1700s,
it became increasingly obvious that the French nobility wielded
a disproportionate amount of power and privilege for no apparent
reason. The revolutionaries, with their cries of “Liberty!” and
“Equality!”, sought to change that.

3.

Assess the
validity of this statement: by attempting to escape from France
in June 1791,
Louis XVI effectively destroyed the prospect of a moderate Revolution resulting
in the installation of a limited or constitutional monarchy.

By definition, a constitutional monarchy
needs two things: a constitution and a monarch. By late 1791,
France had a constitution, as the National Assembly had presented
the new Constitution of 1791 in
September. The credibility of the monarch, however, was suspect. Up
until his attempted escape from France with his family in June 1791,
King Louis XVI had enjoyed vehement backing from moderates within
the National Assembly. Jacques-Pierre Brissot and his followers,
the Girondins, had sought a constitutional monarchy since the very
beginning of the Revolution—much to the chagrin of the radical democratic
Jacobins—and had constructed the 1791 constitution
around the principle of limited monarchy.

However, the fact that the king tried to run away from
the very constitutional monarchy to which he had agreed made it
clear that he had given up on the new government. This development
made it difficult, if not impossible, for Brissot and the Girondins
to defend their pro–constitutional monarchy stance. The Jacobins,
who had detested the idea of a king from the beginning, were able
to take advantage of the Girondins’ weakened position and take control
of the government. With Louis XVI having destroyed the credibility
of the proposed constitutional monarchy, there was little to prevent the
radicals from declaring France a republic, as the Girondins could
no longer justify any other feasible form of government.

Suggested Essay Topics

1. To what extent was the French
nobility responsible for the crisis that destroyed the ancien régime?

2. What role did women play in
the Revolution? Were they simply a reactionary force—as when bread
shortages prompted a march on Versailles—or an active part of the revolutionary
public?

3. To what extent did the Thermidorian
Reaction owe its success to the excesses of Maximilien Robespierre?

4. Make an argument as to which
governmental arrangement—monarchial rule, the National Assembly’s
constitutional monarchy, the National Convention’s republic, or
the Directory—was best suited to revolutionary France.

5. What problems in France and
beyond contributed to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte?